pv magazine Webinar | Ensuring tracker stability in extreme weather conditions

Initiative partner: Trina Solar

We have entered a new-era in the solar industry, where larger format, high-power modules are becoming the large-scale standard. These new modules promise improved levelized cost of energy and lower balance of system costs, but also bring with them new challenges, like the design of trackers fully reliable even when operating under extreme weather conditions.

These challenges have been a specific focus of TrinaTracker, and the company has designed a new tracker series to accommodate these ultra-high power modules: the Agile 1P and Vanguard 2P. The trackers are fully compatible with large format modules – up to 670 W – achieving maximum energy yield and reliability even when operating under extreme weather conditions.

Trackers, specifically, are subject to the effects of high wind loads, more so than any other project component. As the surface area of the module increases, the pressure of the trackers’ structure is higher, due to higher weight of modules and higher static and dynamic wind loads. To validate the tracker’s stability, Vanguard 2P and Agile 1P scale prototypes were subjected to static, aeroelastic, and dynamic loads via wind tunnel tests performed by leading wind engineering consultancy firms: RWDI and CPP.

In this pv magazine Webinar, we will learn about the high wind related risks for mounted large-format modules and their impact on the trackers’ structure; the wind tunnel tests that were performed on Vanguard 2P and Agile 1P tracker systems; and how the output gathered from the tunnel test validates trackers’ stability, drives new solution developments and guides design adaptation to project sites.

Presenters Gonzalo de la Viña, Marcos Cerezo, Cruz Argüeso Chamorro, and Markus Balz will discuss the different models used in the wind tunnel testing and the difference between the tunnel test implemented by TrinaTracker and the tunnel test typically implemented in the market.

pv magazine Webinar content:
• Challenges implied when accommodating large-format modules
• Effects of wind loads on trackers
• Different wind tests to validate trackers’ reliability when they are exposed to extreme winds
• Importance of performing the Full Aeroelastic Model Test
• Optimized design solutions to mitigate wind related risk on trackers
• Q&A

Questions can be submitted beforehand or during the webinar through a chat window. Tim Sylvia from pv magazine will be the moderator of this webinar.

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This webinar was recorded on 19 July 2021.